Add the Rotel and cream cheese. Cook over medium heat until the cream cheese is melted.

RP Servings: I don't have any kind of idea. I made it, and then my husband and I shamelessly ate it all as dinner. If you're eating it as an actual dip, then... I still don't know how much normal people eat for dips.Stars: 5. Delicious. Never change, cream cheese Rotel dip. Never change.

I love real Hidden Valley Ranch dressing... But I don't like to eat food with weird "stuff" in it. So when I saw this copycat recipe, I knew I had to give it a try. If it's even close, it'll be a keeper!

NOTE: I don't have garlic salt. Garlic salt is a 3:1 ratio of salt to garlic powder, so I just made that substitution.

Put everything in a food processor (I probably could have used my Vitamix, too) and process. It went flinging up on the sides and I had to jostle the machine around to get it all processed - I have a pretty big food processor.

Here are the mixing instructions from the original recipe:To make Salad Dressing:

RP Servings: Makes about 10 tbsp of mix, which is about 52 servings of dressing with these measurements - I assume one serving is 2 tbsp prepared dressing. For the dip, it would make a little over 3 recipes worth.

RATING: 3 starsThis is okay (hubby says it's a 2 1/2, a guest says 3), but it's not Hidden Valley Ranch. However, it's made of real stuff, tastes pretty good, and is worth having on hand!

Hissy fit - what an awesome Southern term! If you aren't from the South, you may not know this term. Basically it means going bat-crap crazy. And not usually in a good way. Like, "Did you see Missy talkin' to her mama yesterday? She had a flippin' hissy fit about not being able to go to the dance." Generally speaking, when you have a hissy fit you're not totally in control of your faculties.

Apparently, the person who invented this dip had that same reaction, which is pretty intriguing - that's a strong reaction for a dip! Of course we had to try it for New Years. Wouldn't you?!

Here's the link - and I'm going to post a screen shot in case you have any issues with the site. This dip is on other sites with slight modifications, but this is the one that I pinned originally on my "Snacks and Adult Beverages" board.

I made 2 modifications here: I did not use sage, because a) I don't really like sage, and only use it fresh if I have to use it, usually at Thanksgiving, and b) I used mild Cheddar instead of white American. Two reasons for that - I don't love American cheese, and my store didn't have it anyway.

As you can see, I did what I could to lighten this up: 2% Velveeta, lite sour cream, and 1/3 less fat cream cheese. I also used this Smithfield All Natural pork sausage, which is really nice.

Ok, Velveeta confession. I never, ever use Velveeta. The last time I bought Velveeta was when my son was about 14 (he's 18 now) and wanted to make a dip for a guy's night. The smallest you can buy is apparently 16 oz, so I now have 8 oz that I will probably not use before it turns a funny color. And it seems to like to stay connected to itself - I cut these 1/4" cubes, but had a hard time making them stay separated! But eventually, you get nice, uniform processed cheese food squares, voila!

I love cast iron for so many reasons, and this recipe was a perfect example. The pieces of pork got some nice carmelization, which was added a nice note to the finished dip. Brown, then remove from the pan and drain.

Combine everything in a bowl. I cut the cream cheese into sort-of-cubes, which helped everything mix faster, but you could probably just toss the whole thing in there as long as it was softened. It mixed better than I expected.

These are the spices I used, plus fresh ground pepper and cayenne. (Honestly, I can't tell the difference between fresh ground and pre-ground pepper, except you can get bigger pieces and they're random shapes, but hey, people wave those grinders around in fancy restaurants, so it must be good, right?!) I used kosher salt instead of sea salt, because that's what I had.

It really does mix up well, as long as the cream cheese is soft. You'll still have the shreds of cheddar and squares of Velveeta, but those will melt when you bake it.

I baked mine in a Pampered Chef stoneware square baker. Instead of using cooking spray, I spread oil on the stoneware with a paper towel. I let it sit on the counter for about an hour; if you're making it ahead and refrigerating it, I'd plan for an extra 15-30 min of baking to make up for the chilled ingredients - otherwise, there should be no problem with making it in the morning to bake later on.

It cooks up nice and bubbly! It wasn't as thick as I expected at first, but as it cools it definitely firms up.

That's all we could do! It is RICH, even with the lower fat ingredients I used. The general consensus was that it could definitely use more spice. We didn't miss the sage, but I would at the very least double the cayenne (couldn't even taste it) and curry (ditto). I'd also up the garlic from a dash to at least 1/4 tsp.

I served this with corn chips. The original recipe says you can use veggies, but none of the 4 of us thought that would be good. Pita chips would be a good option, though, or a fairly firm cracker like Triscuits. RP SERVINGS: I'd say this would easily serve 10-12 people, unless it's the ONLY food or you're feeding football players. It's very rich, and that was with lower fat cheese.

RATING: 3 starsWe all agreed this could be 4* with more spices. It might also be improved with a sharper Cheddar, rather than using all mild cheeses. It's good, easy, and goes a long way, so great for a Super Bowl or New Years party. Overall, it could be a solid recipe for your party roster.

Author

Jennings & Ryan are mother/daughter, and love to cook. And look at Pinterest. So we thought...Why not? At least one Pinterest recipe, with photos and a review, every day for a year. What could go wrong?